Title: Prayer for Brothers
(Lecture 54) 1 John 5:16-17 Prayer for Brothers
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If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, ask him, and he will give him life for those who do not lead to death. For there is a sin that leads to death, and I do not say, ‘Ask for it.’ All unrighteousness is sin, but it leads to death. There is also a sin that does not come (1 John 5:16-17).
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Last time, we looked at the saying that God hears prayers according to His will, but we should not understand the phrase “according to His will” here as a condition for God to hear prayers. This is because we can ask, ‘What is the will of God?’ in order to answer our prayers.
In the course of my life, when I realize that I am being led according to God’s will and guidance from the beginning to the end, rather than being able to live according to my own strength and want the world as I have set my mind, to put my will in front of such a God. When I realize that it is futile, I naturally entrust myself to God's will. Therefore, the prayer that the believer wishes to know what God's will is and to live according to it is essential to love God.
Look at the text again, “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, let him ask, and he will give him life for those who do not lead to death. I do not say, ‘Ask for it, for there is a sin that leads to death. is a sin, and there is a sin that does not lead to death” (verses 16-17).
What, then, is the sin that leads to death? Even with the same sin, unless he abides in the grace of Jesus Christ, he cannot but die because of sin. In the end, all who do not believe in the fact that there is no sin and gain eternal life through the grace of Christ have committed a sin that leads to death. The attempt is not to tell them to save for them.
The apostle now speaks of a prayer for brothers, and is talking about what a brotherhood is. It is to say that brothers are those who live in unrighteousness, but are in a relationship that does not lead to death in the grace of Christ. Then anyone who despises or does not believe in the grace of Christ is not a brother.
A brother is not in a relationship of criticism, competition, and contempt. Praying for your brother tells us this. In the grace of Christ, all are equal in that they are sinners. Injustice has no quantity. God's Word judges all human beings as guilty of injustice, no matter how many actions they have taken. In it, there are people of grace who are declared innocent by grace. That's a brother.
No one is good, and no one can be said to be more righteous than anyone else. Therefore, even if a brother sees someone's injustice, he cannot criticize it. I have no right to criticize, because if the hawk criticizes him, I must be criticized too.
Therefore, brothers have no choice but to pray for each other. I have no choice but to pray that God will help my brother as he helps me. Just as God gives strength to my weakness, I have no choice but to pray for God to be strength in my brother's weakness.
Are any of you confident that you live by the Word? Don't we know for ourselves that we can't? Of course, this does not mean that we should give up living by the Word. I am telling you that it is only through grace that believers can live by the word, and they have no choice but to admit that the evil nature within me is often manifested against grace.
We are equally vulnerable to this weakness. He is a weak being who cannot live without God's help every day. If I know my weakness and seek God's help, when I look at my brother, I see his weakness and ask for God's help. It can be said that I love my brother.
If you can see your brother falling, you should be able to see that you are also a faller by looking at the brother. Criticism can never come out of such a mind. If there is criticism, it must be said that it is because he does not have the love of God. Because if you criticize a person who falls, it means that he does not see his own fall, and he cannot know God's love without seeing his own fall.
What do you pray for your brother? If there is no prayer for my brother at all, it may be because I myself live without prayer to God. Because there is no prayer for me, I do not have the need to pray for my brother.
Even if I pray, if it is filled with only the problems of the flesh, that is, the prayer, ‘Let my brother’s business prosper,’ it may be because my interest is directed toward the flesh. It is because if your interest in me is directed toward the matter of life, when you pray for your brother, you will also pray about the matter of his life.
It is right for brothers to pray for one another. When I look at my brother in my injustice and weakness, he will come to know that he is not the object of criticism and judgment, but the object of sharing and fellowship with one another. In that case, there will be nothing you want from your brother, only the desire to live together in grace.